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object:1.02 - SADHANA PADA
class:chapter
book class:Patanjali Yoga Sutras
author class:Swami Vivekananda
author class:Patanjali
subject class:Yoga


CHAPTER II - SADHANA PADA

CONCENTRATION - ITS PRACTICE

II H



1. J^i|N>|: II ? II

tapahsvadhyayeshvampranidhanani kriyayogcih

Mortification, study, and surrendering fruits of work
to God are called Kriya Yoga.

Those Sam ad his with which we ended our last chapter are
very difficult to attain; so we must take them up slowly. The
first step, the preliminary step, is called Kriya Yoga. Literally
this means work, working towards Yoga. The organs are the
horses, the mind is the reins, the intellect is the charioteer, the
soul is the rider, and this body is the chariot. The master of the
household, the King, the Self of man, is sitting in this chariot.
If the horses are very strong, and do not obey the reins, if the
charioteer, the intellect, does not know how to control the
horses, then this chariot will come to grief. But if the organs,
the horses, are well controlled, and if the reins, the mind, are
well held in the hands of the charioteer, the intellect, the
chariot, reaches the goal. What is meant, therefore, by
mortification? Holding the reins firmly while guiding this
body and mind: not letting the body do anything it likes, but
keeping them both in proper control. Study. What is meant by
study in this case? Not study of novels, or fiction, or story
books, but study of those books which teach the liberation of
the soul. Then again this study does not mean controversial

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



studies at all. The Yogi is supposed to have finished his period
of controversy. He has had enough of all that, and has become
satisfied. He only studies to intensify his convictions. Vada
and Siddhanta. These are the two sorts of Scriptural
knowledge, Vada (the argumentative) and Siddhanta (the
decisive). When a man is entirely ignorant he takes up the first
part of this, the argumentative fighting, and reasoning, pro
and con.-, and when he has finished that he takes up the
Siddhanta , the decisive, arriving at a conclusion. Simply
arriving at this conclusion will not do. It must be intensified.
Books are infinite in number, and time is short; thereofre this
is the secret of knowledge, to take that which is essential.
Take that out, and then try to live up to it. There is an old
simile in India that if you place a cup of milk before a Raja
Hamsa (swan) with plenty of water in it, he will take all the
milk and leave the water. In that way we should take what is
of value in knowledge, and leave the dross. All these
intellectual gymnastics are necessary at first. We must not go
blindly into anything. The Yogi has passed the argumentative
stage, and has come to a conclusion, which is like the rocks,
immovable. The only thing he now seeks to do is to intensify
that conclusion. Do not argue, he say; if one forces
arguments upon you, be silent. Do not answer any argument,
but go away free, because arguments only disturb the mind.
The only thing is to train the intellect, so what is the use of
disturbing it any more. The intellect is but a weak
instrument, and can give only knowledge limited by the
senses; the Yogi wants to go beyond the senses; therefore the
intellect is of no use to him. He is certain of this, and therefore
is silent, and does not argue. Every argument throws his mind
out of balance, creates a disturbance in the China, and this

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



disturbance is a drawback. These argumentations and
searchings of the reason are only on the way. There are much
higher things behind them. The whole of life is not for
schoolboy fights and debating societies. By surrendering
the fruits of work to God is to take to ourselves neither credit
nor blame, but to give both up to the Lord, and be at peace.



2. II R II

samadhibhavanarthah kleshatanookaranarthashch

(They are for) the practice of Samadhi and
minimising the pain-bearing obstructions.

Most of us make our minds like spoiled children, allowing
them to do whatever they want. Therefore it is necessary that
there should be constant practice of the previous
mortifications, in order to gain control of the mind, and bring
it into subjection. The obstructions to Yoga arise from lack of
this control, and cause us pain. They can only be removed by
denything the mind, and holding it in check, through these
various means.



3.



r\ r\ fN *\




: 13TT: II XII



avidyasmitaragadveshabhiniveshah kleshaah



The pain-bearing obstructions are - ignorance,
egoism, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life.

These are the five pains, the fivefold tie that binds us down.
Of course ignorance is the mother of all the rest. She is the



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



only cause of all our misery. What else can make us
miserable? The nature of the Soul is eternal bliss. What can
make it sorrowful except ignorance, hallucination, delusion;
all this pain of the soul is simply delusion.

4. M^Hd^Nh^^KKI u IIH II V II

avidya kshetram uttareshan
prasuptatanuvichchhinnodaranam

Ignorance is the productive field of all them that
follow, whether they are dormant, attenuated,
overpowered, or expanded.

Impressions are the cause of these, and these impressions
exist in different degrees. There are the dormant. You often
hear the expression innocent as a baby, yet in the baby may
be the state of a demon or of a god which will come out by and
by. In the Yogi these impressions, the Samskaras left by past
actions, are attenuated; that is, in a very fine state, and he can
control them, and not allow them to become manifest.
Overpowered means that sometimes one set of impressions is
held down for a while by those that are stronger, but they will
come out when that repressing cause is removed. The last
state is the expanded, when the Samskaras, having helpful
surroundings, have attained to great activity, either as good or
evil.



5. IcHfM I icRN'dT II Ml

anityashuchiduhkhanatmasu

nityashuchisukhatmakhyatiravidya

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



Ignorance is taking that which is non-eternal, impure,
painful, and non-Self, for the eternal, pure, happy,
Atman (Self).

All these various sorts of impression have one source:
ignorance. We have first to learn what ignorance is. All of us
think that I am the body, and not the Self, the pure, the
effulgent, the ever blissful, and that is ignorance. We think of
man, and see man as body. This is the great delusion.

6. ^^MAlTldK^IrHddllfHdl II $ II

drigdarshanashaktyorekatmatevasmita

Egoism is the identification of the seer with the
instrument of seeing.

The seer is really the Self, the pure one, the ever holy, the
infinite, the immortal. That is the Self of man. And what are
the instruments? The Chitta, or mind-stuff, the Buddhi,
determinative faculty, the Manas, or mind, and the Indriyani,
or sense organs. These are the instruments for him to see the
external world, and the identification of the Self with the
instruments is what is called the ignorance of egoism. We say
I am the mind, I am thought; I am angry, or I am happy.
How can we be angry, and how can we hate? We should
identify ourselves with the Self; that cannot change. If it is
unchangeable, how can it be one moment happy, and one
moment unhappy? It is formless, infinite, omnipresent. What
can change it? Beyond all law. What can affect it? Nothing in
the universe can produce an effect on it, yet, through
ignorance, we identify ourselves with the mind-stuff, and



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think we feel pleasure or pain.

7. TFT: || vs ||

sukhanushayi mag ah

Attachment is that which dwells on pleasure.

We find pleasure in certain things, and the mind, like a
current, flows towards them, and that, following the pleasure
centre, as it were, is attachment. We are never attached to
anyone in whom we do not find pleasure. We find pleasure in
very queer things sometimes, but the definition is just the
same; wherever we find pleasure, there we are attached.

8 . 5 ^: 11^11

duhkhanushayi dveshah

Aversion is that which dwells on pain.

That, which gives us pain we immediately seek to get away
from.

9.

svarasavahi vidushopi tadmroodho bhiniveshah

Flowing through its own nature, and established even
in the learned, is the clinging to life.

This clinging to life you see manifested in every animal, and
upon it many attempts have been made to build the theory of a
future life, because men like their lives so much that they
desire a future life also. Of course it goes without saying that



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



this argument is without much value, but the most curious part
of it is that, in Western Countries, the idea that this clinging to
life indicates a possibility of a future life applies only to men,
but does not include animals. In India this clinging to life has
been one of the arguments to prove past experience and
existence. For instance, if it be true that all our knowledge has
come from experience, then it is sure that that which we never
experienced we cannot imagine, or understand. As soon as
chickens are hatched they begin to pick up food. Many times
it has been seen where ducks have been hatched by hens, that,
as soon as they come out of the eggs, they flew to water, and
the mother thought they would be drowned. If experience be
the only source of knowledge, where did these chickens learn
to pick up food, or the ducklings that the water was their
natural element? If you say it is instinct, it means nothing it
is simply giving it a word, but is no explanation. What is this
instinct? We have many instincts in ourselves. For instance,
most of you ladies play the piano, and remember, when you
first learned, how carefully you had to put your fingers on the
black and the white keys, one after the other, but now, after
long years of practice, you can talk with your friends, and
your hand goes on just the same. It has become instinct, it
becomes automatic, but so far as we know, all the cases which
we now regard as automatic are degenerated reason. In the
language of the Yogi , instinct is involved reason.
Discrimination becomes involved, and gets to be automatic
Samskaras. Therefore it is perfectly logical to think that all
we call instinct in this world is simply involved reason. As
reason cannot come without experience, all instinct is,
therefore, the result of past experience. Chickens fear the
hawk, and ducklings love the water, and these are both the

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result of past experience, and these are both the result of past
experience. Then the question is whether that experience
belongs to a particular soul, or to the body simply, whether
this experience which comes to the duck is the ducks
forefa thers experience, or the ducks own experience.
Modern scientific menhold that it belongs to the body, but the
Yogis hold that it is the experience of the soul, transmitted
through the body. This is called the theory of reincarnation.
We have seen that all of our knowledge, whether we call it
perception or reason, or instinct, must come through that one
channel called experience, and all that we know call instinct is
the result of past experience, degenerated into instinct, and
that instinct regenerates into reason again. So on throughout
the universe, and upon this has been built one of the chief
arguments for reincarnation, in India. The recurring
experiences of various fears, in course of time, produce this
clinging to life. That is why the child is instinctively afraid,
because the past experience of pain is there. Even in the most
learned men, who know that this body will go, and who say
never mind: we have hundreds of bodies; the soul cannot
die even in them, with all their intellectual conviction, we
still find this clinging to life. What is this clinging to life? We
have seen that it has become instinctive. In the psychological
language of Yoga if has become Samskaras. The Samskaras,
fine and hidden, are sleeping in the China. All these past
experiences of death, all that which we call instinct, is
experience become sub-conscious. It lives in the China, and
is not inactive, but is working underneath. These China Vrttis,
these mind-waves, which are gross, we can appreciate and
feel; they can be more easily controlled, but what about these
finer instincts? How can they be controlled? When I am angry

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



my whole mind has become a huge wave of anger, feel it, see
it, handle it, can easily manipulate it, can fight with it, but I
shall not succeed perfectly in the fight until I can get down
below. A man says something very harsh to me, and I begin to
feel that I am getting heated, and he goes on until I am
perfectly angry, and forget myself, identify myself with
anger. When he first began to abuse me I still thought I am
going to be angry. Anger was one thing and I was another,
but when I became angry, I was anger. These feelings have to
be controlled in the germ, the root, in their fine forms, before
even we have become conscious that they are acting on us.
With the vast majority of mankind the fine states of these
passions are not even known, the state when they are slowly
coming from beneath consciousness. When a bubble is rising
from the bottom of the lake we do not see it, or even when it is
nearly come to the surface; it is only when it bursts and makes
a ripple that we know it is there. We shall only be successful
in grappling with the waves when we can get hold of them in
their fine casues, and until you can get hold of them, and
subdue them before any become gross, there is no hope of
conquering any passion perfectly. To control our passions we
have to control them at their very roots; then alone shall we be
able to burn out their very seed. As fried seeds thrown into the
ground will never come up, so these passions will never arise.

10. 3 II Ml

te pratiprasavaheyah sookshmah

They, to-be-rejected-by-opposite-modifications, are
fine.



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



How are these fine Samskaras to be controlled? We have to
begin with the big waves, and come down and down. For
instance, when a big wave of anger has come into the mind,
how are we to control that? Just by raising a big opposing
wave. Think of love. Sometimes a mother is very angry with
her husband, and while in that state the baby comes in, and
she kisses the baby; the old wave dies out, and a new wave
arises, love for the child. That suppresses the other one. Love
is opposite to anger. So we find that by raising the opposite
waves we can conquer those which we want to reject. Then, if
we can raise in our fine nature those fine opposing waves,
they will check the fine workings of anger beneath the
conscious surface. We have seen now that all these instinctive
actions first began as conscious actions, and became finer and
finer. So, if good waves in the conscious Chitta be constantly
raised, they will go down, become subtle, and oppose the
Samskara forms of evil thoughts.

11. II ??ll

dhyanaheyastadvrittayah

By meditation, their modifications are to be rejected.

Meditation is one of the great means of controlling the rising
of these big waves. By meditation you can make the mind
subdue these waves, and, if you go on practising meditation
for days, and months, and years, until it has become a habit,
until it will come in spite of yourself, anger and hatred will be
controlled and checked.



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



12. 5: Wkl4l II ?RII

kleshamoolah karmashayo
drishtadrishtajanmavedaniyah

The receptacle of works has its root in these
pain-bearing obstructions, and their experience in this
visible life, or in the unseen life.

By the receptacle of works is meant the sum-total of these
Samskaras. Whatever work we do, the mind is thrown into a
wave, and, after the work is finished, we think the wave is
gone. No. It has only become fine, but it is still there. When
we try to remember the thing, it comes up again and becomes
a wave. So it was there; if it had not been there, there would
not have been memory. So, every action, every thought, good
or bad, just goes down and becomes fine, and is there stored
up. They are called pain-bearing obstructions, both happy and
unhappy thoughts, because according to the Yogis , both, in the
long run, bring pain. All happiness which comes from the
senses will, eventually, bring pain. All enjoyment will make
us thirst for more, and that brings pain as its result. There is no
limit to mans desires; he goes on desring, and when he comes
to a point where desire cannot be fulfilled, the result is pain.
Therefore the Yogis regard the sum-total of the impressions,
good or evil, as pain-bearing obstructions; they obstruct the
way to freedom of the Soul. It is the same with the Samskaras,
the fine roots of all our works: they are the causes which will
again bring effects, either in this life, or in the lives to come.
In exceptional cases, when these Samskaras are very strong,
they bear fruit quickly; exceptional acts of wickedness, or of



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goodness, bring their fruits in this life. The Yogis even hold
that men who are able to acquire a tremendous power of good
Samskaras do not have to die, but, even in this life, can
change their bodies into god-bodies. There are several cases
mentioned by the Yogis in their books. These men change the
very material of their bodies; they re-arrange the molecules in
such fashion that they have no more sickness, and what we
call death does not come to them. Why should not this be?
The physiological meaning of foot is assimilation of energy
from the sun. This energy has reached the plant, the plant is
eaten by an animal, and the animal by us. The science of it is
that we take so much energy from the sun, and make it part of
ourselves. That being the case, why should there be only one
way of assimilating energy? The plants way is not the same
as ours; the earths process of assimilating energy differs from
our own. But all assimilate energy in some form or other. The
Yogis say that they are able to assimilate energy by the power
of the mind alone, that they can draw in as much as they desire
without recourse to the orindary methods. As a spider makes
his net out of his own substance, and becomes bound in his
net, and cannot go anywhere except along the lines of that net,
so we have projected out of our own substance this net-work
called the nerves, and we cannot work except through the
channels of those nerves. The Yogi says we need not be bound
by that. Similary, we can send electricity to any part of the
world, but we have to send it by means of wires. Nature can
send a vast mass of electricity without any wires at all. Why
cannot we do the same? We can send mental electricity. What
we call mind is very much the same as electricity. It is clear
that this nerve fluid has some amount of electricity, because it
is polarised, and it answers all electrical directions. We can

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only send our electricity through these nerve channels. Why
not send the mental electricity without this aid? The Yogi
says it is perfectly possible and practicable, and that when you
can do that you will work all over the universe. You will be
able to work with anybody anywhere, without the help of any
nervous system. When the soul is acting through these
channels we say a man is living and when those channels die
the man is said to be said. But when a man is able to act either
with or without these channels, birth and death will have no
meaning for him. All the bodies in the universe are made up
of Tanmatras, and it is only in the arrangement of them that
there comes a difference. If you are the arranger you can
arrange that body in one way or another. Who makes up this
body but you? Who eats the food? If another ate the food for
you, you would not live long. Who makes the blood out of
it? You, certainly. Who assimilates the blood, and sends it
through the veins? You. Who creates the nerves, and makes
all the muscles? You are the manufacturer, out of your own
substance. You are the manufacturer of the body, and you live
in it. Only we have lost the knowledge of how to make it. We
have become automatic, degenerate. We have forgotten the
process of manufacture. So, what we do automatically has
again to be regulated. We are the creators and we have to
regulate that creation, and as soon as we can do that we shall
be able to manufacture just as we like, and then we shall have
neither birth nor death, disease, or anything.

13. ^ msm ^n^FiT: ii n\\

sati moole tadvipako jatyayurbhogah

The root being there, the fruition comes (in the form



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of) species, life, and expression of pleasure and pain.

The roots, the causes, the Samskaras being there, they again
manifest, and form the effects. The cause dying down
becomes the effect, and the effect becomes more subtle, and
becomes the cause of the next effect. The tree bears a seed,
and becomes the cause of the next tree, and so on. All our
works now, are the effects of past Samskaras. Again, these
Samskaras become the cause of future actions, and thus we go
on. So this aphorism says that the cause being there, the fruit
must come, in the form of species; one will be a man, another
an angel, another an animal, another a demon. Then there are
different effects in life; one man lives fifty years, another a
hundred, and another dies in two years, and never attains
maturity; all these differences in life are regulated by these
past actions. One man is born, as it were, for pleasure; if he
buries himself in a forest pleasure will follow him there.
Another man, wherever he goes, pain follows him, everything
becomes painful. It is all the result of their own past.
According to the philosophy of the Yogis all virtuous actions
bring pleasure, and all vicious actions bring pain. Any man
who does wicked deeds is sure to reap the fruit of them in the
form of pain.

14. ^ II ?*ll

te hladaparitapafalah punyapunyahetutvat

They bear fruit as pleasure or pain, caused by virtue

or vice.



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15. qRu I FT d IM'HWj' R g: bcf

R%%5: II ?MI

parinamatapasanskaraduhkhairgunnavritti -
virodhaccha duhkham eva sarvan vivekinah
To the discriminating, all is, as it were, painful on
account of everything bringing pain, either in the
consequences, or in apprehension, or in attitude
caused by impressions, also on account of the counter
action of qualities.

The Yogis say that the man who has discriminating powers,
the man of good sense, sees through all these various things,
which are called pleasure and pain, and knows that they are
always equally distributed, and that one follows the other, and
melts into the other; he sees that men are following an ignis
fatuus all their lives, and never succeed in fulfilling their
desires. There was never a love in this world which did not
know decay. The great king YudiSthira once said that the
most wonderful thing in life is that every moment we see
people dying around us, and yet we think we shall never die.
Surrounded by fools on every side, we think we are the only
exceptions, the only learned men. Surrounded by all sorts of
experiences of fickleness, we think our love is the only lasting
love. How can that be? Even love is selfish, and the Yogi says
that, in the end, we shall find that even the love of husbands
and wives, and children and friends, slowly decays.
Decadence seizes everything in this life. It is only when
everything, even love, fails, that, with a flash, man finds out

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how vain, how dream-like is this world. Then he catches a
glimpse of Vairagyam (renunciation), catches a glimpse of
the beyond. It is only by giving up this world that the other
comes; never through building on to this one. Never yet was
there a great soul who had not to reject sense pleasures and
enjoyments to become such. The cause of misery is the clash
between difference forces of nature, one dragging one way,
and another dragging another, rendering permanent happiness
impossible.

16. ?$||

heyan duhkham anagatam

The misery which is not yet come is to be avoided.

Some Karma we have worked out already, some we are
working out now in the present, and some is waiting to bear
fruit in the future. That which we have worked out already is
past and gone.

That which we are experiencing now we will have to work
out, and it is only that which is waiting to bear fruit in the
future that we can conquer and control, so all our forces
should be directed towards the control of that Karma which
has not yet borne fruit. That is meant in the previous
aphorism, when Patanjali says that these various Samskaras
are to be controlled by counteracting waves.

17. TPTFTT II ?vs||

drashtridrishyayoh sanyogo heyahetuh

The cause of that which is to be avoided is the

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junction of the seer and the seen.

Who is the seer? The Self of Man, the PuruSa. What is the
seen? The whole of nature, beginning with the mind, down to
gross matter. All this pleasure and pain arises from the
junction between this PuruSa and the mind. The PuruSa , you
must remember, according to this philosophy, is pure; it is
when it is joined to nature, and by reflection, that it appears to
feel either pleasure or pain.

18 . SWf II II

prakashakriyasthitishilan bhootendriyatmakan
bhogapavargarthan drishyam

The experienced is composed of elements and organs,
is of the nature of illumination, action and intertia,
and is for the purpose of experience and release (of
the experiencer).

The experienced, that is nature, is composed of elements and
organs the elements gross and fine which compose the
whole of nature, and the organs of the senses, mind, etc., and
is of the nature of illumination, action, and intertia. These are
what in Sanskrit are called Sattva (illumination), Rajas
(action), and Tamas (darkness); each is for the purpose of
experience and relase. What is the purpose of the whole of
nature? That the PuruSa may gain experience. The PuruSa
has, as it were, forgotten its mighty, godly, nature. There is a
story that the king of the gods, Indra, once became a pig,
wallowing in mire; he had a she pig, and a lot of baby pigs,
and was very happy. Then some other angels saw his plight,



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and came to him, and told him, You are the king of the gods,
you have all the gods command. Why are you here? But
Indra said, Let me be; I am all right here; I do not care for the
heavens, while I have this sow and these little pigs. The poor
gods were at their wits end what to do. After a time they
decided to slowly come and slay one of the little pigs, and
then another, until they had slain all the pigs, and the sow too.
When all were dead Indra began to weep and mourn. Then the
gods ripped his pig body open and he came out of it, and
began to laugh when he realised what a hideous dream he had
had; he, the king of the gods, to have become a pig, and to
think that the pig-life was the only life! Not only so, but to
have wanted the whole universe to come into the pig life! The
PuruSa, when it identifies itself with nature, forgets that it is
pure and infinite. The PuruSa does not live; it is life itself. It
does not exist; it is existence itself. The Soul does not know;
it is knowledge itself. It is an entire mistake to say that the
Soul lives, or knows, or loves. Love and existence are not the
qualities of the PuruSa, but its essence. When they get
reflected upon something you may call them the qualities of
that something. But they are not the qualities of the PuruSa ,
but the essence of this great Atman, this Infinite Being,
without birth or death. Who is established in His own glory,
but appears as if become degenerate until if you approach to
tell Him, You are not a pig, he begins to squeal and bite.
Thus with us all in this Maya, this dream world, where it is all
misery, weeping, and crying, where a few golden balls are
rolled, and the world scrambles after them. You were never
bound by laws, Nature never had a bond for you. That is what
the Yogi tells you; have patience to learn it. And the Yogi
shows how, by junction with this nature, and identifying itself

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with the mind and the world, the PuruSa thinks itself
miserable. Then the Yogi goes on to show that the way out is
through experience. You have to get all this experience, but
finish it quickly. We have placed ourselves in this net, and
will have to get out. We have got ourselves caught in the trap,
and we will have to work out our freedom. So get this
experience of husbands and wives, and friends, and little
loves, and you will get through them safely if you never forget
what you really are. Never forget this is only a momentary
state, and that we have to pass through it. Experience is the
one great teacher experiences of pleasure and pain but
know they are only experiences, and will all lead, step by step,
to that state when all these things will become small, and the
PuruSa will be so great that this whole universe will be as a
drop in the ocean, and will fall off by its own nothingness. We
have to go through these experiences, but let us never forget
the ideal.

1 9 . p#I II ?SII

visheshavisheshalinggamatralinggani

gunnaparvani

The states of the qualities are the defined, the
undefined, the indicated only, and the signless.

The system of Yoga is built entirely on the philosophy of the
Sankhyas, as I told you in some of the previous lectures, and
here again I will remind you of the cosmology of the Sankhya
philosophy. According to the Sankhyas, nature is both the
material and efficient cause of this universe. In this nature
there are three sorts of materials, the Sattva, the Rajas, and the



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Tamas. The Tcimcis material is all that is dark, all that is
ignorant and heavy; and the Rajas is activity. The Sattvas is
calmness, light. When nature is in the state before creation, it
is called by them Avyaktam, undefined, or indiscrete; that is,
in which there is no distinction of form or name, a state in
which these three materials are held in perfect balance. Then
the balance is disturbed, these different materials begin to
mingle in various fashions, and the result is this universe. In
every man, also, these three materials exist. When the Sattva
material prevails knowledge comes. When the Rajas material
prevails activity comes, and when the Tamas material prevails
darkness comes and lassitude, idleness, ignorance. According
to the Sankhya theory, the highest manifestation of this
nature, consisting of these three materials, is what they call
Mahat, or intelligence, universal intelligence, and each
human mind is a part of that cosmic intelligence. Then out of
Mahat comes the mind. In the Sankhya Psychology there is a
sharp distinction between Manas, the mind function, and the
function of the Buddhi intellect. The mind function is simply
to collect and carry impressions and present them to the
Buddhi, the individual Mahat, and the Buddhi determined
upon it. So, out of Mahat comes mind, and out of mind comes
fine material, and this fine material combines and becomes
the gross material outside the external universe. The claim
of the Sankhya philosophy is that beginning with the intellect,
and coming down to a block of stone, all has come out of the
same thing, only as finer or grosser states of existence. The
Buddhi is the finest state of existence of the materials, and
then comes Ahamkara, egoism, and next to the mind comes
fine material, which they call Tanmatras, which cannot be
seen, but which are inferred. These Tanmatras combine and

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become grosser, and finally produce this universe. The finer is
the cause, and the grosser is the effect. It begins with the
Buddhi, which is the finest material, and goes on becoming
grosser and grosser, until it becomes this universe. According
to the Sankhya philosophy, beyond the whole of this nature is
the PuruSa, which is not material at all. PuruSa is not at all
similar to anything else, either Buddhi, or mind, or the
Tanmatras, or the gross material; it is not akin to any one of
these, it is entirely separate, entirely different in its nature, and
from this they argue that the PuruSa must be immortal,
because it is not the result of combination. That which is not
the result of combination cannot die, these PuruSas or Souls
are infinite in number. Now we shall understand the
Aphorism, that the states of the qualities are defined,
undefined, and signless. By the defined is meant the gross
elements, which we can sense. By the undefined is meant the
very fine materials, the Tanmatras, which cannot be sensed
by ordinary men. If you practice Yoga, however, says
Patanjali, after a while your perception will become so fine
that you will actually see the Tanmatras. For instance, you
have heard how every man has a certain light about him;
every living being is emanating a certain light, and this, he
says, can be seen by the Yogi. We do not all see it, but we are
all throwing out these Tanmatras, just as a flower is
continuously emanating these Tanmatras, which enable us to
smell it. Every day of our lives we are throwing out a mass of
good or evil, and everywhere we go the atmosphere is full of
these materials, and that is how there came to the human
mind, even unconsciously, the idea of building temples and
churches? Why should man build churches in which to
worship God? Why not worship Him anywhere? Even if he

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



did not know the reason, man found that that place where
people worshipped God became full of good Tanmatras.
Every day people go there, and the more they go the holier
they get, and the holier that place becomes. If any man who
has not much Sattva in him goes there the place will influence
him, and arouse his Sattva quality. Here, therefore, is the
significance of all temples and holy places, but you must
remember that their holiness depends on holy people
congregating there. The difficulty with mankind is that they
forget the original meaning, and put the cart before the horse.
It was men who made these places holy, and then the effect
became the cause and made men holy. If the wicked only
were to go there it would become as bad as any other place. It
is not the building, but the people, that make a church, and
that is what we always forget. That is why sages and holy
persons, who have so much of this Sattva quality, are
emanating so much of it around them, and exerting a
tremendous influence day and night on their surroundings. A
man may become so pure that his purity will become tangible,
as it were. The body has become pure, and in an intensely
physical sense, no figurative idea, no poetical language, it
emanates that purity wherever it goes. Whosoever comes in
contact with that man becomes pure. Next the indicated
only means the Buddhi, the intellect. The indicated only is
the first manifestation of nature; from it all other
manifestations proceed. The last is the signless. Here there
seems to be a great fight between modern science and all
religion. Every religion has this idea that this universe comes
out of intelligence. Only some religions were more
philosophical, and used scientific language. The very theory
of God, taking it in its psychological significance, and apart

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



from all ideas of personal God, is that intelligence is first in
the order of creation, and that out of intelligence comes what
we call gross matter. Modern philosophers say that
intelligence is the last to come. They say that unintelligent
things slowly evolve into animals, and from animals slowly
evolve into men. They claim that instead of everything
coming out of intelligence, intelligence is itself the last to
come. Both the religious and the scientific statement, though
seemingly directly opposed to each other, are true. Take an
infinite series A B A B A B, etc. The question is
which is first, A or B. If you take the series as A , you will
say that A is first, but if you take it as B A you will say that
B is first. It depends on the way you are looking at it.
Intelligence evolves, and becomes the gross material, and this
again evolves as intelligence, and again evolves as matter
once more. The Sankhyas, and all religionists, put intelligence
first, and the series becomes intelligence then matter,
intelligence then matter. The scientific man puts his finger on
matter, and say matter then intelligence, matter then
intelligence. But they are both indicating the same chain.
Indian philosophy, however, goes beyond both intelligence
and matter, and finds a PuruSa, or Self, which is beyond all
intelligence, and of which intelligence is but the borrowed
light.

20. SET sfcmTE: II II

drashta drishimatrah shuddhopi pratyayanupashyah
The seer is intelligence only, and though pure, seen
through the colouring of the intellect.



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



This is again Sankhya philosophy. We have seen from this
philosophy that from the lowest form up to intelligence all is
nature, but beyond nature are PuruSas (souls), and these have
no qualities. Then how does the soul appear to be happy or
unhappy? By reflection. Just as if be piece of pure crystal be
put on a table and a red flower be put near it, the crystal
appears to be red, so all these appearances of happiness or
unhappiness are but reflections; the soul itself has no sort of
colouring. The soul is separate from nature; nature is one
thing, soul another, eternally separate. The Sankhyas say that
intelligence is a compounds, that it grows and wanes, that it
changes, just as the body changes, and that its nature is nearly
the same as that of the body. As a fingernail is to the body, so
is body to intelligence. The nail is a part of the body, but it can
be pared off hundreds of times, and the body will still last.
Similarly, the intelligence lasts asons, while this body can be
pared off, thrown off. Yet intelligence cannot be immortal,
because is changes growing and waning. Anything that
changes cannot be immortal. Certainly intelligence is
manufactured, and that very fact shows us that there must be
something beyond that, because it cannot be free. Everything
connected with matter is in nature, and therefore bound for
ever. Who is free? That free one must certainly be beyond
cause and effect. If you say that the idea of freedom is a
delusion, I will say that the idea of bondage is also a delusion.
Two facts come into our consciousness, and stand or fall by
each other. One is that we are bound. If we want to go through
a wall, and our head bumps against that wall, we are limited
by that wall. At the same time we find will, and think we can
direct our will everywhere. At every step these contradictory
ideas are coming to us. We have to believe that we are free,

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



yet at every moment we find we are not free. If one idea is a
delusion, the other is also a delusion, because both stand upon
the same basis consciousness. The Yogi says both are true;
that we are bound so far as intelligence goes, that we are free
as far as the soul is concerned. It is the real nature of man, the
Soul, the PuruSa, which is beyond all law of causation. Its
freedom is percolating through layers and layers of matter, in
various forms of intelligence, and mind, and all these things.
It is its light which is shining through all. Intelligence has no
light of its own. Each organ has a particular centre in the
brain; it is not that all the organs have one centre; each organ
is separate. Why do all these perceptions harmonise, and
where do they get their unity? If it were in the brain there
would be one centre only for the eyes, the nose, the ears,
while we know for certain that there are different centres for
each. But a man can see and hear at the same time, so a unity
must be back of intelligence. Intelligence is eternally
connected with the brain, but behind even intelligence stands
the PuruSa, the unit, where all these different sensations and
perceptions join and become one. Soul itself is the centre
where all the different organs converge and become unified,
and that Soul is free, and it is its freedom that tells you every
moment that you are free. But you mistake, and mingle that
freedom every moment with intelligence and mind. You try to
attri bute that freedom to the intelligence, and immediately
find that intelligence is not free; you attri bute that freedom to
the body, and immediately nature tells you that you are again
mistaken. That is why there is this mingled sense of freedom
and bondage at the same time. The Yogi analyses both what is
free and what is bound, and his ignorance vanishes. He finds
that the PuruSa is free, is the essence of that knowledge

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



which, coming through the Buddhi, becomes intelligence,
and, as such, is bound.

21. II 3? II

tadarth eva drishyasyatma

The nature of the experience is for him.

Nature has no light of its own. As long as the PuruSa is
present in it, it appears light, but the light is borrowed; just as
the moons light is reflected. All the manifestations of nature
are caused by this nature itself, according to the Yogis', but
nature has no purpose in view, except to free the PuruSa.

22. fdrf II 33 II

kritarthan prati nashtam apyanashtan
tadanyasadharannatvat

Though destroyed for him whose goal has been
gained, yet is not destroyed, being common to others.

The whole idea of this nature is to make the Soul know that it
is entirely separate from nature, and when the Soul knows
this, nature has no more attractions for it. But the whole of
nature vanishes only for that man who has become free. There
will always remain an infinite number of others, for whom
nature will go on working.

23. T^limiTtdl: II 33. II

svcisvamishaktyoh svaroopopalabdhihetuh sanyogah
Junction is the cause of the realisation of the nature of

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



both the powers, the experienced and its Lord.

According to this aphorism, when this Soul comes into
conjunction with nature, both the power of the Soul and the
power of nature become manifest in this conjunction, and all
these manifestations are thrown out. Ignorance is the cause of
this conjunction. We see every day that the cause of our pain
or pleasure is always our joining ourselves with the body. If I
were perfectly certain that I am not this body, I should take no
notice of heat and cold, or anything of the kind. This body is a
combination. It is only a fiction to say that I have one body,
you another, and the sun another. The whole universe is one
ocean of matter, and you are the name of a little particle, and I
of another, and the sun of another. We know that this matter is
continuously changing, what is forming the sun one day, the
next day may form the matter of our bodies.

24. II RVII

tasya heturavidya
Ignorance is its cause.

Through ignorance we have joined ourselves with a particular
body, and thus opened ourselves to misery. This idea of body
is a simple superstition. It is superstition that makes us
happy or unhappy. It is superstition caused by ignorance that
makes us feel heat and cold, pain and pleasure. It is our
business to rise above this superstition, and the Yogi shows us
how we can do this. It has been demonstrated that, under
certain mental conditions, a man may be burned, yet, while
that condition lasts, he will feel no pain. The difficulty is that



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



this sudden upheaval of the mind comes like a whirlwind one
minute, and goes away the next. If, however, we attain it
scientifically, through Yoga, we shall permanently attain to
that separation of Self from the body.

25. clfST: II ^ II

tadabhavat sanyogabhavo hanan taddrisheh
kaivalyam

There being absence of that (ignorance) there is
absence of junction, which is the
thing-to-be-avoided; that is the independence of the
seer.

According to this Yoga philosophy it is through ignorance that
the Soul has been joined with nature and the idea is to get rid
of natures control over us. That is the goal of all religions.
Each Soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this
Divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal.
Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or by
philosophy, by one, or more, or all of these - and be free. This
is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or
books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details. The
Yogi tries to reach this goal through psychic control. Until we
can free ourselves from nature we are slaves; as she dictates
so we must go. The Yogi claims that he who controls mind
controls matter also. The internal nature is much higher that
the external, and much more difficult to grapple with, much
more difficult to control; therefore he who has conquered the
internal nature controls the whole universe; it becomes his
servant. Raja Yoga propounds the methods of gaining this

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



control. Higher forces than we know in physical nature will
have to be subdued. This body is just the external crust of the
mind. They are not two different things; they are just as the
oyster and its shell. They are but two aspects of one thing;
the internal substance of the oyster is taking up matter from
outside, and manufacturing the shell. In the same way these
internal fine forces which are called mind take up gross matter
from outside, and from that manufacture this external shell, or
body. If then, we have control of the internal, it is very easy to
have control of the external. Then again, these forces are not
different. It is not that some forces are physical, and some
mental; the physical forces are but the gross manifestations of
the fine forces, just as the physical world is but the gross
manifestation of the fine world.

26 . II II

vivekakhyatiraviplava hanopayah

The means of destruction of ignorance is unbroken
practice of discrimination.

This is the real goal of practice discrimination between the
real and unreal, knowing that the PuruSa is not nature, that it
is neither matter nor mind, and that because it is not nature, it
cannot possibly change. It is only nature which changes,
combining, and recombining, dissolving continually. When
through constant practice we begin to discriminate, ignorance
will vanish, and the PuruSa will begin to shine in its real
nature, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



27. cT^f TO II Rvs II

tasya saptadhaa prantabhoomih prajna

His knowledge is of the sevenfold highest ground.

When this knowledge comes, it will come, as it were, in seven
grades, one after the other, and when one of these has begun
we may know that we are getting knowledge. The first to
appear will be that we have known what is to be known. The
mind will cease to be dissatisfied. While we are aware of
thirsting after knowledge we begin to seek here and there,
wherever we think we can get some truth, and, failing to find
it we become dissatisfied and seek in a fresh direction. All
search is vain, until we begin to perceive that knowledge is
within ourselves, that no one can help us, that we must help
ourselves. When we begin to practice the power of
discrimination, the first sign that we are getting near truth will
be that that dissatisfied state will vanish. We shall feel quite
sure that we have found the truth, and that it cannot be
anything else but the truth. Then we may know that the sun is
rising, that the morning is breaking for us, and, taking
courage, we must persevere until the goal is reached. The
second grade will be that all pains will be gone. It will be
impossible for anything in the universe, physical, mental, or
spiritual, to give us pain. The third will be that we shall get
full knowledge, that omniscience will be ours. Next will come
what is called freedom of the Chitta. We shall realise that all
these difficulties and struggles have fallen off from us. All
these vacillations of the mind, when the mind cannot be
controlled, have failed down, just as a stone falls from the
mountain top into the valley and never comes up again. The

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



next will be that this China itself will realise that it melts
away into its causes whenever we so desire. Lastly we shall
find that we are established in our Self, that we have been
alone throughout the universe, neither body nor mind was
ever connected with us, much less joined to us. They were
working their own way, and we, through ignorance, joined
ourselves to them. But we have been alone, omnipotent,
omnipresent, ever blessed; our own Self was so pure and
perfect that we required none else. We required none else to
make us happy, for we are happiness itself. We shall find that
this knowledge does not depend on anything else; throughout
the universe there can be nothing that will not become
effulgent before our knowledge. This will be the last state,
and the Yogi will become peaceful and calm, never to feel any
more pain, never to be again deluded, never to touch misery.
He knows he is ever blessed, ever perfect, almighty.



28 . WWf: II II

yogangganushthanad ashuddhikshaye jnanadiptira
vivekakhyateh



By the practice of the different parts of Yoga the
impurities being destroyed knowledge becomes
effulgent, up to discrimination.

Now comes the practical knowledge. What we have just been
speaking about is much higher. It is way above our heads, but
it is the ideal. It is first necessary to obtain physical and
mental control. Then the realisation will become steady in
that ideal. The ideal being known, what remains is to practise
the method of reaching it.



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



29.



37|flH II II

yamaniyamasanapranayamapratyaharadharanadhy
anasamadhayo-a-shtava anggani
Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratya ham,
Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi, are the limbs of Yoga.

30. RTT: II II

ahinsasatyasteyabrahmacharyaparigraha yamah
Non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence,
and non-receiving, are called Yama.

A man who wants to be a perfect Yogi must give up the sex
idea. The Soul has no sex; why should it degrade itself with
sex ideas? Later we shall understand better why these ideas
must be given up. Receiving is just as bad as stealing;
receiving gifts from others. Whoever receives gifts, his mind
is acted on by the mind of the giver, so that the man who
receives gifts becomes degenerated. Receiving gifts destroys
the independence of the mind, and makes us mere slaves.
Therefore, receive nothing.

3 1 . Tmd^lddcWH^Hdl^l: TIRRRT HtHdchf II \U\

jatideshakalasamayanavachchhinnah
sarvabhauma mahavratam



85




Patanjali Yoga Sutras



These, unbroken by time, place, purpose, and caste,
are (universal) great vows.

These practices, non-killing, non-stealing, chastity, and
non-receiving, are to be practiced by every man, woman and
child, by every soul, irrespective of nation, country or
position.

32. ffll: II X3 II

shciuchasantoshcitapahsvadhyayeshvara-
pranidhanani niyamah

Internal and external purification, contentment,
mortification, study, and worship of God, are the
Niyamas.

External purification is keeping the body pure; a dirty man
will never become a Yogi. There must be internal purification
also. That is obtained by the first-named virtues. Of course
internal purity is of greater value that external, but both are
necessary, and external purity, without internal, is of no good.

33. kldidl'Td II XX II

vitarkabadhane pratipakshabhavanam
To obstruct thoughts which are inimical to Yoga
contrary thoughts will be brought.

This is the way to practice all these virtues that have been
stated, by holding thoughts of an opposite character in the
mind. When the idea of stealing comes, non-stealing should



86




Patanjali Yoga Sutras



be thought of. When the idea of receiving gifts comes, replace
it by a contrary thought.

34. RcTTT T%TT^f: $d4JKdl*j4lKcTT

ipwp ?Td ^Vll

vitarkaa hinsadayah kritakaritanumodita
lobhakrodhamohapoorvaka
mridumadhyadhimatra duhkhajnananantafala iti
pratipakshabhavanam

The obstructions to Yoga are killing etc., whether
committed, caused, or approved; either through
avarice, or anger, or ignorance; whether slight,
middling, or great, and result is innumerable
ignorances and miseries. This is (the method of)
thinking the contrary.

If I tell I lie, or cause another to tell a lie, or approve of
another doing so, it is equally sinful. If it is a very mild lie, it is
still a lie. Every vicious thought will rebound, every thought
of hatred which you have thought, in a cave even, is stored up,
and will one day come back to you with tremendous power in
the form of some misery here. If you project all sorts of hatred
and jealousy, they will rebound on you with compound
interest. No power can avert them; when once you have put
them in motion you will have to bear them. Remembering
this, will prevent you from doing wicked things.



87




Patanjali Yoga Sutras



35. 3#HIMfcl8Wi II V\W

ahimsapratishthayam tatsannidhau vairatyagah

Non-killing being established, in his presence all
emnities cease (in others).

If a man gets the idea of non-injuring others, before him even
animals which are by their nature ferocious will become
peaceful. The tiger and the lamb will play together before that
Yogi and will not hurt each other. When you have come to
that state, then alone you will understand that you have
become firmly established in non-injuring.

36. II ^ II

satyap ratishthayam kriyafa lashrayatvam
By the establishment of truthfulness the Yogi gets the
power of attaining for himself and others the fruits of
work without the works.



When this power of truth will be established with you, then
even in dream you will never tell an untruth, in thought, word
or deed; whatever you say will be truth. You may say to a man
Be blessed, and that man will be blessed. If a man is
diseased, and you say to him, Be thou cured, he will be
cured immediately.



37.




II Vs II



asteyapratishthayam sarvaratnopasthanam



By the establishment of non-stealing all wealth



88




Patanjali Yoga Sutras



comes to the Yogi.

The more you fly from nature the more she follows you, and if
you do not care for her at all she becomes your slave.

38. flfelfl: II ^11

brahmacharyapratishthayam viryalabhah

By the establishment of continence energy is gained.

The chaste brain has tremendous energy, gigantic will power,
without that there can be no mental strength. All men of
gigantic brains are very continent. It gives wonderful control
over mankind. Leaders of men have been very continent, and
this is what gave them power. Therefore the Yogi must be
continent.

39. II ^ II

aparigrahasthairye janmakathantasanbodhah
When he is fixed in non-receiving he gets the
memory of past life.

When the Yogi does not receive presents from others he does
not become beholden to others, but becomes independent and
free, and his mind becomes pure, because with every gift he
receives all the evils of the giver, and they come and lay
coating after coating on his mind, until it is hidden under all
sorts of coverings of evil. If he does not receive the mind
becomes pure, and the first thing it gets is memory of past life.

89




Patanjali Yoga Sutras



Then alone the Yogi becomes perfectly fixed in his ideal,
because he sees that he has been coming and going so many
times, and he becomes determined that this time he will be
free, that he will no more come and go, and be the slave of
Nature.

40. TOTfTR: II II

shauchat svanggajugupsa parairasansargah
Internal and external cleanliness being established,
arises disgust for ones own body, and
non-intercourse with other bodies.

When there is real purification of the body, external and
internal, there arises neglect of the body, and all this idea of
keeping it nice will vanish. What others call the most
beautiful face to the Yogi will appear to be an animals face, if
there is not intelligence behind it. What the world will call a
very common face he will call heavenly, if that spirit shines
behind it. This thirst after body is the great bane of human life.
So, when this purity is established, the first sign will be that
you do not care to think you are a body. It is only when
purity comes that we get rid of this body idea.

41. Kill H H HI 4 1 K 4 4 4 1 cH d* H 4F4^TR ^ II V? II

sattvashuddhisaumanasyaikagryendriyajayatmadars
hanayojnatvani cha

There also arises purification of the Sattva,
cheerfulness of the mind, concentration, conquest of



90




Patanjali Yoga Sutras



the organs, and fitness for the realisation of the Self.

By this practice the Sattva material will prevail, and the mind
will become concentrated and cheerful. The first sign that you
are become religious is that you are becoming cheerful. When
a man is gloomy that may be dyspepsia, but it is not religion.
A pleasurable feeling is the nature of the Sattva. Everything is
pleasurable to the Sattvika man, and when this comes, know
that you are progressing in Yoga. All pain is caused by Tamas,
so you must get rid of that; moroseness is one of the results of
Tamas. The strong, the well-knit, the young, the healthy, the
daring alone are fit to be Yogis. To the Yogi everything is bliss,
every human face that he sees brings cheerfulness to him.
That is the sign of a virtuous man. Misery is caused by sin,
and by no other cause. What business have you with clouded
faces; it is terrible. If you have a clouded face do not go out
that day, shut yourself up in your room. What right have you
to carry this disease out into the world? When your mind has
become controlled you will have control over the whole body;
instead of being a slave to the machine, the machine will be
your slave. Instead of this machine being able to drag the soul
down it will be its greatest helpmate.

42. II VR II

santoshad anuttamah sukhalabhah

From contentment comes superlative happiness.

43. II II

kayendriyasiddhirashuddhikshayat tapasah

The result of mortification is bringing powers to the



91




Patanjali Yoga Sutras



organs and the body, by destroying the impurity.

The results of mortification are seen immediately sometimes
by heightened powers of vision, and so on, hearing things at a
distance, etc.



44. II VVII

svadhyayad ishtadevatasanp rayogah

By repetition of the mantram comes the realisation of
the intended deity.

The higher the beings that you want to get the harder is the
practice.

45. TFTTTN Rrl hsyi II VMI

samadhisiddhirishvarapranidhanat
By sacrificing all to Isvara comes Samadhi.

By resignation to the Lord, Samadhi becomes perfect.

46. II W II

sthirasukham aasanam

Posture is that which is firm and pleasant.

Now comes Asana , posture. Until you can get a firm seat you
cannot practice the breathing and other exercises. The seat
being firm means that you do not feel the body at all; then
alone it has become firm. But, in the ordinary way, you will
find that as soon as you sit for a few minutes all sorts of



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



disturbances come into the body; but when you have got
beyond the idea of a concrete body you will lose all sense of
the body. You will feel neither pleasure nor pain. And when
you take your body up again it will feel so rested; it is the only
perfect rest that you can give to the body. When you have
succeeded in conquering the body and keeping it firm, your
practice will remain firm, but while you are disturbed by the
body your nerves become disturbed, and you cannot
concentrate the mind. We can make the seat firm by thinking
of the infinite. We cannot think of the Absolute Infinite, but
we can think of the infinite sky.

prayatnashaithilyanantasamapattibhyam

By slight effort and meditating on the unlimited
(posture becomes firm and pleasant).

Light and darkness, pleasure and pain, will not then disturb
you.



48. chTT S^TTWcT: II ^ II

tato dvandvanabhighatah

Seat being conquered, the dualities do not obstruct.

The dualities are good and bad, heat and cold, and all the pairs
of opposites.



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



49. MNINIH: II W II

tasmin sati shvasaprashvasayorgativichchhedah
pranayamah

Controlling the motion of the exhalation and the
inhalation follows after this.

When the posture has been conquered, then this motion is to
be broken and controlled, and thus we come to Pranayama;
the controlling of the vital forces of the body. Prana is not
breath, though it is usually so translated. It is the sum-total
of the cosmic energy. It is the energy that is in each obdy, and
its most apparent manifestation is the motion of the lungs.
This motion is caused by Prana drawing in the breath, and is
what we seek to control in Pranayama. We begin by
controlling the breaht, as the easiest way of getting control of
the Prana.



50. qfest

II V II

bahyabhyantarastambhavrittih
deshakalasankhyabhih paridrishto dirghasookshmah
Its modifications are either external or internal, or
motionless, regulated by place, time, and number,
either long or short.

The three sorts of motion of this Pranayama are, one by
which we draw the breath in, another by which we throw it



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



out, and the third action is when the breath is held in the lungs,
or stopped from entering the lungs. These, again, are varied
by place and time. By place is meant that the Prana is held to
some particular part of the body. By time is meant ho wlong
the Prana should be confined to a certain place, and so we are
told how many seconds to keep on motion, and how many
seconds to keep another. The result of this Pranayama is
Udghata, awakening the Kundalini.

bahyabhyantaravishayakshepi chaturthah

The fourth is restraining the Prana by directing it

either to the external or internal objects.

This is the fourth sort of Pranayama. Prana can be directed
either inside or outside.

52. cTcT: || ^ ||

dharanasu ch yojnata manasah

From that, the covering to the light of the Chitta is

attenuated.

The Chitta has, by its own nature, all knowledge. It is made of
Sattva particles, but is covered by Rajas and Tamas particles,
and by Pranayama this covering is removed.



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



53. II *vUI



The mind becomes fit for Dharana.

After this covering has been removed we are able to
concentrate the mind.

54. ^^4M4hT|4h ^K4|U|i

M^-llfiK: II WII

svasvavishayasanprayoge chittasy svaroopanukar
ivendriyanan pratyaharah

The drawing in of the organs is by their giving up
their own objects and taking the form of the
mind- stuff.

These organs are separate states of the mind-stuff. I see a
book; the form is not in the book, it is in the mind. Something
is outside which calls that form up. The real form is in the
Chitta. These organs are identifying themselves with, and
taking the forms of whatever comes to them. If you can
restrain the mind- stuff from taking these forms the mind will
remain calm. This is called Pratyahara. Thence arises
supreme control of the organs.

When the Yogi has succeeded in preventing the organs from
taking the forms of external objects, and in making them
remain one with the mind-stuff, then comes perfect control of
the organs, and when the orgns are perfectly under control,

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras



every muscle and nerve will be under control, because the
organs are the centres of all the senstations, and of all actions.
These organs are divided into organs of work and organs of
sensation. When the organs are controlled the Yogi can
control all feeling and doing; the whole of the body will be
under his control. Then alone one begins to feel joy in being
born; then one can truthfully say, Blessed am I that I was
born. When that control of the organs is obtained, we feel
how wonderful this body really is 2 .



2 There are 55 sutras in many versions of Patanjali Yoga Sutra. The 55th

Sutra is cfcf: hTUT II hh II "Pratyahara results in the absolute

control of the sense organs. Swami Vivekananda has not commented
upon this sutra



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Patanjali Yoga Sutras




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